Council members Wes Ehlers and Jack Folk discussing making zoning changes.

TIFTON — The Tifton City Council voted unanimously to approve a $43,255,725 Fiscal Year 2018-19 budget for the city.

Last year’s budget was approximately $42 million.

This includes a 3 percent raise for all employees, funding for additional School Resource Officers and the creation of a new director of Economic Development, funding of the Main Street Program and changing the Environmental Management department into the Department of Community Development and moving it into the old fire station located at the intersection of Forrest Avenue and N. Ridge Avenue, according to city manager Pete Pyrzenski.

“I think it was a great year for the budget,” he said. “We made some hard decisions and looked at a lot of areas, but I can tell you the document before you is one you should be proud of. It’s balanced, we did that without a service increase, obviously without a tax increase. That’s really a great testimony to what we’re doing. All departments are stable. The fire department is going to be fully staffed, the PD is on the way to being fully staffed. From capital items from SPLOST to equipment for the departments we are in really good shape with this particular budget.”

Finance Director Wayne Putnal said that the budget has to balance every year.  

He said that the budget had to be updated to reflect changes in service delivery as well.

“I sorted this out so there is no commingling,” he said. “There won’t be any questions about funding.”

There was some discussion about the possibility of increasing funding for the library after a cutback of operating hours was announced.

“People can’t go anywhere else,” council member Jack Folk said. “They don’t have access to the internet. To cut back on the library and education is just the wrong way to go.”

Pyrzenski said that he would have a better idea of if the city could increase funding after the tax digest comes out in July.

He said that there were several things that will still need to be worked out at a later date, such as the exact role of the director of economic development and the contract for waste pick up with Golden Environmental.

The city council voted unanimously to adopt the 2018 Joint Greater Tift County and Cities of Omega, Tifton and Ty Ty Comprehensive Plan Update at the meeting.

Comprehensive plans provide better consistency and coordination between local governments regarding planning for future development. The plan has already been worked out and approved by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs and was approved by Tift County on Monday.

Two ordinances calling for rezoning property located at 2203 and 2201 N. US Hwy 41 from Neighborhood Commercial to General Business were postponed at the request of Folk.

The two rezoning requests, which are for the Waffle House and the shopping strip with Harvey’s Supermarket, were made by the city in order to have consistent zoning in the area and to be in line with the comprehensive plan the council approved earlier, according to Environmental Management Director Danny Wallace.

“The comprehensive plan says that (area) is an interchange,” Wallace said. “That’s our main corridor, I-75, Hwy 82, US 319. Those are our main corridors for people traveling and coming through Tifton. That was the idea, was to develop that and grow those as tourist attractions and accommodations and those sorts of things.”

Folk said that he didn’t feel comfortable changing the zoning.

“Right now the businesses there are okay,” Folk said. “That doesn’t mean five years from now they can’t tear it all down and build something that is allowed in general business versus neighborhood commercial.”

He said that the neighborhood and the apartments in the area are his concern.

“We already went through this whole business with the hospital building their building,” he said. “We couldn’t stop that. The neighborhood was incensed that the hospital could build what they put there. We can stop other businesses if they don’t fit the neighborhood.”

City manager Pete Pyrzenski suggested the council be informed about what the differences in the two zonings are before they make a decision. The council voted to postpone the items and take them back up at the July 2 workshop.

The council also discussed approving an alcohol license for El Limon, located at 501 S. Ridge Ave.

According to Pyrzenski, there have been concerns expressed by neighboring businesses about bar patrons parking in their parking lots.

Council member Johnny Terrell asked for a personal reassurance from the owner that he would take responsibility for any patrons making a mess in other businesses’ parking lots.

Owner Mario Limon Nabor addressed the council regarding the concerns, saying that the bar has adequate parking and that if any of the bar customers make a mess in a neighboring parking lot, they would clean it up. He added that the bar will have cameras and security, which addressed the concern about patrons breaking into neighboring businesses.

“We are responsible people,” he said. “We will try to do everything the legal way, the best way we can. We’re going to try to be good neighbors.”

The council voted to approve the application after the discussion.

The council unanimously approved 15 resolutions and ordinances, which included:

• a resolution approving the jail inmate agreement.

• a resolution designating Rock the Block on June 30 as a festival.

• a resolution declaring surplus property.

• a resolution providing for an executive session on May 25.

• a resolution providing for an executive session on June 4.

• a resolution approving the municipal court judge service agreement. There was discussion about removing benefits from the agreement at the June 4 workshop, which was done and approved at the June 18 meeting.

• an ordinance rezoning property located on US Hwy 41 near exit 64 of I-75 from Residential Professional to General Business.

• an ordinance rezoning property located at 2225 and 2227 N. US Hwy 41 from Neighborhood Commercial to General Business.

• an ordinance amending the Tifton Land Development Code (LDC) dealing with parking standards and design.

• an ordinance amending the LDC regarding street definitions.

• an ordinance amending the LDC establishing solar and wind farms.

• a resolution providing for a new alcohol license for Jay’s Food Mart, located at 10 Sandra Dr.

• a resolution providing for an alcohol license for The Local Kitchen and Bar, located at 212 S. Main St.

Four residents addressed the council during the public comment portion of the meeting.

Pastor Todd Garner with Union Grove Church of God spoke to the council about their Serve Day event on July 14.

The event is a community outreach event where church members volunteer for various projects around the community, such as at the Pregnancy Care Center, nursing homes, H3 Center and working with the Tift County Department of Family Children Services. Garner asked the council to point out areas in the community that could use help on Serve Day.

Hayward Fowler, owner of The Fun Channel, informed the council about his plans to cover more news events and requested a media contact person from the council. He was informed that the city had recently hired a new public relations manager, Morgan Atwater.

Lynn Lovett addressed the council on behalf of Ruth’s Cottage and The Patticake House to thank them for working to ensure the CDBG grant application the organization submitted would be considered by the Department of Community Affairs.

Hal Baxley informed the council about his plans to have a concert in the park next to 41 and Main on July 7.

Pyrzenski informed the council that all of the paving for the city has been completed, that striping will be completed soon, and that they are going to be looking at the next round of streets that need to be repaved.